A&M's Lawler Named Assistant Coach of the Year
Nov 04, 2003 | Baseball
November 04, 2003
Longtime Texas A&M baseball coach Jim Lawler has been named the 2003 National Assistant Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association and Baseball America Magazine.
Lawler will be presented with the award at the Honors Luncheon at the ABCA National Convention, which will be held in San Antonio, in January.
"It is an honor to be recognized by my peers with this award," commented Lawler. "I feel fortunate to have been given opportunities by great coaches like Jerry Kindall and Jim Wing at Arizona and Mark Johnson at Texas A&M. I also feel honored to have coached most of my career at a world-class university and have had the opportunity to coach some great players at Texas A&M."
Lawler, a native of Carroll, Iowa, came to Texas A&M as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator when Johnson became the head coach in 1985. In 1989, Lawler was promoted to his current position of assistant head coach.
"Jim Lawler has been an outstanding coach for a long time," Johnson said. "I am very proud and happy that he is being acknowledged for being a cornerstone of the Texas A&M baseball program by the baseball community."
Lawler has seen his recent pitching staffs continue to be among the nation's best. Texas A&M has had a pitcher earn All-America honors in eight of the last 14 seasons.
Four Aggie pitchers under Lawler's tutelage--Chris Clemons, Kelly Wunsch, Jeff Granger and Chance Caple--were drafted in the first round of the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. Lawler has watched a total of 10 Aggie pitchers get drafted in the first two rounds of the draft, including 2003 second-rounders Brian Finch, Logan Kensing and Scott Beerer. In Lawler's 19 years at A&M, 51 Aggie hurlers have been drafted.
Currently, Lawler has several of his former pitchers in professional baseball, including big-leaguers Ryan Rupe, Casey Fossum and Wunsch.
As a recruiting coordinator, Lawler has been one of the nation's best, including his 1996-1997 class that was ranked No. 1 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball. Although 11 recruits in the class were drafted, nine decided to come to Texas A&M.
Lawler came to Texas A&M from the University of Texas-El Paso, where he was the head coach. Prior to his stint there, Lawler was the head coach at Gonzaga, where his 1980 team finished the season ranked ninth in the country.
Johnson and Lawler first met in 1974 at the University of Arizona. Lawler was a graduate assistant and Johnson was an assistant coach on a staff with legendary collegiate coaches Kindall and Wing.
Lawler is married to the former Trish Bruckner and they have five children--Amy (25), Julie (24), Lisa (21), Brett (19) and Travis (15).
Previous winners of the award are Dean Stotz (Stanford), Tim Corbin (Clemson), Brian O'Conner (Norte Dame) and Jim Toman (South Carolina) were the first four recipients of this outstanding honor.
